Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

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Gob
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Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Gob »

An American woman living in the UK has horrified social media users around the world yet again after sharing how she makes 'British tea.'

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In early May, Michelle, a mother-of-three, went viral for a TikTok video in which she broke down how she makes 'hot tea' using powdered instant tea mix, Tang orange drink mix, instant lemonade, sugar, and a couple of spices — a recipe that had other social media users expressing disgust and dismay.

Michelle appears to have a thick skin, because just a month later, she's uploaded another tea technique: This time, she and one of her daughters show how they make 'British tea' by microwaving the water, pouring in a third of a cup of milk, dropping in a tea bag, and then drowning it all in sugar.

Warning: this video shows scene which may upset cultured viewers.

"So I got a lot of questions after my last video, and everyone wanted to see me make hot tea, or British tea — so today we're gonna make tea," she says to the camera as she stands side-by-side with one of her teenage daughters.


First, they fill a mug about two thirds of the way with water from the sink. They microwave the water for a minute, then pour in milk to fill the last third of the cup.

Her daughter then drops in a tea bag and sprinkles quite a lot of sugar into the already nearly-overflowing mug.

'And that's how you make hot tea,' Michelle says with a smile.

The reaction to the new video has been nearly just as aghast as that to her original video.

'I regret to inform you the Tea Butcher is at it again,' tweeted British broadcaster Toby Earle.

The video has been viewed over two million times in his tweet alone, garnering many horrified replies.

'Putting the tea bag in the mug was literally the only thing that was correct,' wrote one commenter.

'Even that was at the wrong time,' another replied.

Some said they were 'horrified' by the amount of sugar, while another was 'profoundly disturbed' by whole thing.

The video was called 'shocking,' with some accusing of Michelle of trolling or joking and others calling it outright blasphemy.

'A clear and unequivocal declaration of war,' wrote one.
So, how do you fuckers actually make tea?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Guinevere
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Guinevere »

Fill the teapot with hot water. Turn on the electric kettle. When it boils, empty the tea pot and add the tea (either leaves or bags, depending). Fill the teapot with the scalding water. Steep. Length depends on the tea. Pull the bags out. Pour the tea.

Drinking it without milk or sugar these days, but I would add sugar next and then milk last if using either. Occasionally I might steam the milk in advance and then I add the hot tea to the hot milk, and then add sugar.

I also make it by the cup - similar process except I don’t warm my cup, and if using loose tea I have a cute cat tea strainer. Typically I’ll do this for the herbal tisanes I like to drink in the evening.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Guinevere
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Guinevere »

PS - that Tang, Instant tea, instant lemonade and spices mixture used to be called “Russian tea” back in the 70s. One of my grandmothers used to keep a jar of if around the house, and we would have it mixed with hot water as a “treat” in the afternoons :D
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Crackpot
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Crackpot »

Boil kettle “tie” tea bag to handle of coffee mug add spoonful of honey pour in hot water over bag give it a minute remove bag stir remove stir drink. Snicker at my British colleague who has a long involved process for making tea.
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.

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Crackpot
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Crackpot »

Boil kettle, “tie” tea bag to handle of coffee mug, add spoonful of honey, pour in hot water over bag, give it a minute, remove bag, stir, remove spoon, drink, Snicker at my British colleague at work who has a long involved process for making tea.
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.

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Guinevere
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Guinevere »

Crackpot, why don’t you just wave the teabag over the cup of hot water, if you’re really only steeping it for a minute. That way you can use the same one over and over :mrgreen:
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Ha! I do the tea-bag in a cup thing but leave the teabag in until I've finished drinking.

Then I use the same tea-bag for the next cuppa

And I've even been known to get three cups out of one bag. Bit weak that one

Very de trop!
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Long Run
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Long Run »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:47 pm
Ha! I do the tea-bag in a cup thing but leave the teabag in until I've finished drinking.
ditto, but I don't reuse the bag. I've been around long enough I feel I deserve a fresh tea bag for every cup, but then I use an 8-12 ounce mug. Never learned how to drink from a teacup with my small finger out.

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Long Run
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Long Run »

First, they fill a mug about two thirds of the way with water from the sink. They microwave the water for a minute, then pour in milk to fill the last third of the cup.

Her daughter then drops in a tea bag and sprinkles quite a lot of sugar into the already nearly-overflowing mug.

'And that's how you make hot tea,' Michelle says with a smile.
Can child protective services be far behind?

Big RR
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Big RR »

I do the same LR, only I add a little lemon to the tea. I prefer coffee, but prefer tea to instant coffee, or, generally, to the coffee served in England (this is changing due to the appearance of better coffee shops even in the small towns). I never put milk or sugar in either.

FWIW, I've had tea in very nice places where it is brewed from loose tea, and also from tea bags (in the teapot and in the cup) and find them all similar enough that I don't really have a preference; although my daughter drinks a good amount of tea and I like some blends much more than others.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by BoSoxGal »

Fire up the electric kettle full of cold water - thanks to my UK friends for that advancement over my lifelong use of a stovetop tea kettle.

Put teabag in bottom of large tea mug - currently working my way through a tin of Typhoo (not a huge fan, but I bought it on a whim and now must drink it) and weigh down the tea bag with a spoon containing about a teaspoon-sized dab of Swan’s raw unfiltered honey.

Pour boiling water into mug, steep 3-5 minutes, remove bag wringing excess liquid from it and discard.

Drink lovely tea.


I am open to suggestions for lovely teas to try as I’ve recently quit coffee altogether (except as an occasional treat) and am drinking tea a couple of times a day. I really loved the Scottish breakfast tea I drank over the last two months, not quite so fond of Typhoo - it’s just not terribly full bodied. I have a foil bag of loose leaf Yorkshire Red waiting in the cupboard for when the Typhoo’s gone, but might end up just putting the Typhoo to the back of the shelf to save for when I’m ‘in a pinch’ - or maybe it would make good ice tea?

Anyway, tea aficionados, please weigh in! (I’ve had Earl Grey and Irish breakfast in the past and liked both very much. Grew up on Lipton and Red Rose - we had a few of those little porcelain figurines around when I was a teenager, and I now have just one - a lighthouse gifted to me by an elderly client I cared for who lived on the coast.)
Last edited by BoSoxGal on Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Big RR
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Big RR »

Not a recommendation of something to drin, but avoid lapsang souchong tea at all costs; I had it once in an Asian tea House known for different teas by the potful, and I swear it tasted like creosote in a cup. I got it because I generally like black teas, but this is somehow smoked to get that creosote flavors.

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Guinevere
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Guinevere »

I've been on a London Fog tea kick -- Harney's loose in a tin -- it's earl grey with some lavender. Add some milk and maybe a touch of honey, and its fabu. I also love Twinings Prince of Wales, one of long-time favorites. Hard to find in the US.

Herbal teas -- really tisanes -- so many lovely options. I'm drinking a couple right now from Switzerland, with alpine herbs and flowers, including eidleweiss! And I always love a good ginger tea. Ginger turmeric is also a great combo.

Finally, don't forget the lovely asian teas, like jasmine so delicate and fragrant. I'll also make a matcha green tea latte (use powdered matcha, unsweetened, best quality you can manage), whisk it into steamed milk of your choice. I add a drizzle of maple or honey.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Guinevere
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Guinevere »

Big RR wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:16 pm
Not a recommendation of something to drin, but avoid lapsang souchong tea at all costs; I had it once in an Asian tea House known for different teas by the potful, and I swear it tasted like creosote in a cup. I got it because I generally like black teas, but this is somehow smoked to get that creosote flavors.
I like the smoky quality of lapsang souchong, but just occasionally. I bought some once and it smoked my entire tea caddy, which was not what I was going for.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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TPFKA@W
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by TPFKA@W »

So we pour this into a Pyrex cup and put it in the microwave and heat as desired. We then pour it in the cup of choice. It's pretty good and labor un-intensive. Image

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

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A note on tea bags, for those who use them - I recently learned that a great many of them contain microplastics which obviously pollute the environment as the tea bag decomposes. I was dismayed to learn this as I’d always thought they were natural fiber based - but apparently that’s changed in recent decades. I’m working through the ones I have and transitioning to all loose leaf - just one small change toward reducing waste.

I was recently gifted a tin of Harney & Sons blueberry green tea; the tin is lovely and the tea smells fantastic (haven’t tried it yet), but I was dismayed to see that they put their tea out in NYLON tea bags they call ‘sachets’. They’re definitely pretty, but how environmentally awful! Glad to see on their company website that as of last fall, they are working toward changing over to a different, environmentally friendly material to make their sachets from rather than oil-based.

eta: Teabags with plastic content aren’t only bad for the environment - any tea brewed at proper temperature (~80 degrees F) is sufficiently hot to activate the molecules in the plastic and leach some of it into the tea and thus into YOU - in case that’s a better argument for avoiding bags and encouraging your favorite tea company to return to cotton fiber or other natural fiber bags.
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RayThom
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Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by RayThom »

Real British tea?

I grew up drinking loose tea almost exclusively. My father seemed to have a phobia about using a "disaster bag." It's how I make my tea until this very day. (Tetley black tea if I have to use the bag.)

"... never tea to the water, always water to the tea..." Mary Poppins
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BoSoxGal
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by BoSoxGal »

I needed a tea infuser for my Yorkshire Red, as I somehow failed to pack mine when I moved back from Montana. Just ordered from Harney & Sons their diffuser intro pack, which includes a lovely Finum (German made) infuser, a teaspoon scoop, a timer with their logo, and two 4oz tins of loose leaf tea - one of their Paris blend and one of their hot cinnamon spice. The kit is 20% off regular price and I got a further 20% discount for their ‘summer sale’ - so total price was far below the cost of the components, and free shipping! (It’s the little things!)

Can’t wait for it to arrive!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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dales
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by dales »

So, how do you f**kers actually make tea?
I don't.

I drink coffee like most red-blooded and patriotic Americans.

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


yrs,
rubato

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Joe Guy
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Re: Blaspheme, burn the witch!!!

Post by Joe Guy »

I'm with Dale. I drink strong coffee like a red-blooded American. The last time I had tea it was Lipton orange pekoe. It was the only tea I'd ever heard of before they started coming out with chamomi.. camo.... chameleon tea, tea for this, tea for that. It's not normal. It's like drinking radiator fluid to keep you cool. It's a bunch of hooey.

Of course, if you're British, you're exempt. It's your culture.... :D

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